BILLY CHILDISH
Born Chatham, Kent, United Kingdom, 1959 Lives Whitstable, Kent, United Kingdom
EDUCATION
1977 Medway College of Design, Kent 1978 St. Martins School of Art, London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 wolves, sunsets and the self, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, Korea remember all the / high and exalted things / remember all the low / and broken things, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY 2019 man in the mouth of a cave, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, United Kingdom 2018 heaven’s journey, Neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany 2017 Billy Childish: Man With Jackdaw, Villa Schöningen, Berlin, Germany mountain view house, Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas, TX 2016 Billy Childish in Print (A Survey), Rochester Art Gallery, Kent, United Kingdom the house at grass valley, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, United Kingdom Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, Frankfurt, Germany 2015 billy childish at cactus garden, Galleria Paolo Curti / Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co., Milan, Italy flowers, nudes and birch trees, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY at segantini’s hut, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany 2014 Pushkin House, London, United Kingdom edge of the forest, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong 2013 darkness was here yesterday, Carl Freedman Gallery, London, United Kingdom all apparent achievements and misdemeanours are non defining, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany paintings that change the universe like digging in the gutter with a broken lolly stick, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY Animal Totems, Lying Poets and Other Mundane Renditions in Paint, International Art Objects, Los Angeles, CA 2012 Billy Childish. Frozen estuary and Other Paintings of the Divine Ordinary, Part II, Hoxton Arches, London, United Kingdom Billy Childish. Frozen estuary and Other Paintings of the Divine Ordinary, The Gallery: No.I, The Smithery, The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, United Kingdom Billy Childish. Strange Bravery, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London, United Kingdom Neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany 2011 I am the Billy Childish, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY 2010 Works on paper, L-13 Light Industrial Workshop and Private Ladies and Gentlemen's Club for Art, Leisure and the Disruptive Betterment of Culture, London, United Kingdom Billy Childish, the soft ashes of berlin snowing on hans fallada's nose, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany Billy Childish. I am their damaged megaphone, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany,
Art|Basel 41, Basel, Switzerland Bomb grammar/writings, editions, ideas, Maison de la Poesie, Basel, Switzerland Billy Childish: Unknowable but Certain, The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom White Columns, New York, NY 2009 High Atlas, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Christ Church University, Canterbury, United Kingdom 2008 I Fill All Of Your Dreams, The Aquarium L-13, Clerkenwell, London, United Kingdom 2004 Simon Finch Gallery, London, United Kingdom Handing the Loaded Revolver to the Enemy: Homage to Vincent Van Gogh, Aquarium Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2003 L-13 Gallery, London, United Kingdom 1999 Metropole Arts Centre, The Leas, Folkstone, Kent, United Kingdom 1998 Artist of the Day, chosen by Tracey Emin, Flowers East, London, United Kingdom 1995 Billy Childish. Big hart and balls, Cubitt Gallery, London, United Kingdom 1994 Billy Childish in collaboration with Hangman Publications, Cubitt Gallery, London, United Kingdom 1990 Westwerk, Hamburg, United Kingdom 1988 5 Dryden Street, London, United Kingdom 1986 De Media, Belgium, United Kingdom
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Billy Childish, Franz Gertsch, Alex Katz, Galleria Monica De Cardenas, St. Moritz, Switzerland 2016 Our Friend Larionov, All-Russian Decorative Art Museum, Moscow, Russia 2015 Das Unendliche im Endlichen. Romantik und Gegenwart, Kunstsammlung Jena, Jena, Germany Future Seasons Past, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY The Islanders, Galerie Mikael Andersen, Copenhagen, Denmark Horizon, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong, China Blue Pink Black, Carl Freedman Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2014 Paintings Sweet Paintings, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany BILLY CHILDISH, HARRY ADAMS and EDGEWORTH JOHNSTONE: Our Friend Larionov, Pushkin House, London, United Kingdom St. Moritz Art Masters, St. Moritz and Engadin, Switzerland 2012 I Followed You into the Water, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY 2011 On Shuffle, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart, Germany 2010 Infiltrations, L-13 Gallery, London, United Kingdom Polemically Small, curated by Edward Lucie-Smith, Charlie Smith, London, United Kingdom 2009 I Am the Good Artist, L-13 Gallery, London, United Kingdom With or Without God, L-13 Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2000 British Art Show 5, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Inverleith House – Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Stills, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; John Hansard Gallery, Southhampton, United Kingdom; Millais Gallery – Southhampton Institute, Southhampton, United Kingdom; Southhampton City Art Gallery, Southhampton, United Kingdom; Centre for
Visual Art, Cardiff, United Kingdom; Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, United Kingdom; Ffotogallery, Cardiff, United Kingdom; National Museum & Gallery, Cardiff, United Kingdom; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom 1997 Multiple Choice, Cubitt Gallery, London, United Kingdom 1992 The Kelly Family, Esther Schipper Gallery, Cologne, Germany 1991 Galerie Spaarkrediet, Belgium
RESIDENCIES
2011 Chatham Dockyard, Kent, United Kingdom 2010 Institute of Cotemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2020 Lee, Byunghee. “Billy Childish “Wolves, Sunsets, and the Self” Lehmann Maupin / Seoul,” FLASH ART, 25 June. Kwon, Mee-yoo. “British artist Billy Childish's 'radical traditional' paintings on view in Seoul,” Korea Times, 28 April. Lee, Su-Hyun and Brett Sokol. “In Seoul, the Art World Gets Back to Business,” New York Times, 27 April. E.C. “Billy Childish wolves, sunsets, and the self,” Air Mail, 22 April. Loos, Ted. “One-Man Torrent of Artistic Expression Billy Childish Unveils Nine New Paintings,” Introspective Magazine, 9 February. Pinnock, Tom. “Billy Childish on his best albums: ‘Musicians are ten-a-penny – I’m not one of them!’,” Uncut, 24 January. 2019 Wigan, Lilias. “In Focus: Billy Childish’s poignant, tender depiction of his wife, completely idiosyncratic and entirely compelling,” Country Life, 19 July. Westfall, Mark. “Billy Childish: Man in the mouth of a cave,” FAD Magazine, 24 May. 2016 Kessler, Ted. “Billy Childish,” Q Magazine, August. Fleming, Amy. “Billy Childish: musician, painter and poet,” Financial Times, 15 April. 2015 Schultz, Charlie. “Billy Childish: Lehmann Maupin,” Modern Painters, December. “Goings On About Town: Billy Childish at Lehmann Maupin,” The New Yorker, 5 October. Siegel, Robert Anthony. “I Just Paint,” the Paris Review, 14 September. 2014 Mathieson, Frankie, “Billy Childish on Creativity,” AnOther Magazine, 21 August. Lam, Apple, “Dots and dashes,” The Standard HK, 2 May. McHugh, Fionnuala, “Billy the kid,” South China Morning Post, 6 April, p. 26 – 28. 2013 Sharp, Rob, “REVIEW: Billy Childish, ‘Darkness Was Here Yesterday,’” ArtInfo, 20 September. Dineen, Norah, “What’s left behind, what’s still working well & methods of transcendence: an interview with Billy Childish,” ARTslant, 24 April. Massara, Kathleen, “Billy Childish Interview on Stuckism, Humor and Moustaches,” The Huffington Post, 8 April. Martinez, Alanna, “One-Line Reviews: Pithy take on Gordon Matta-Clark, Elliott Hundley, and More,” ArtInfo, 5 April. Diamond, Jason, “The Art of Billy Childish,” Flavorwire, 4 April. Russeth, Andrew, Michael Miller and Dan Duray, “9 Things to do in NY’s Art World Before April 1,” GalleristNY, 26 March. “Billy Childish: I’ve upset Kylie and Jack White and my name’s in Tracey Emin’s tent,” Metro
UK, 11 March. da Silva, Jose, “Interview with Billy Childish,” The White Review, 10 March. 2011 Wolin, Joseph R, “Billy Childish, ‘I Am the Billy Childish,’” TimeOut New York, 8 - 14 December. “Billy Childish,” The New Yorker, Winter. “I am the Billy Childish,” Whitewall Daily, 15 November. Michaels, Susan, “Billy Childish Talks Van Gogh and His Definitions of the Word ‘Amateur,’” Huffington Post Arts, 13 November. Fateman, Johanna, “Billy Childish,” Artforum, November. “26 Questions for Artist, Poet, and Musician Billy Childish,” ArtInfo: International Edition, 31 October. Russeth, Andrew, “Life After Thee Milkshakes,” New York Observer, 31 October. Bartholomew, Emma, “Cult Artist Billy Childish’s Work to Feature in Hometown Exhibition,” Hackney Gazette, 31 August. Mulvey, John, “Childish Pursuits,” Living.scotsman.com, 11 May. Walleston, Aimee, “Billy Childish Rises Above,” Art In America, 3 January. 2010 Yablonsky, Linda, “Artifacts | Art Frazle,” The Moment online, 20 June. Tully, Judd, “The Market Cooks at Art Basel, Sometimes at a Simmer, Sometimes at a Boil,” Artinfo.com, 16 June. Russeth, Andrew, “In New York: Opening this Armory Week,” Artinfo.com, 3 March. Guner, Fisun, “Stuck Record,” New Statesman, 25 February. Luke, Ben, “Exhibitions; What Else is New…,” Evening Standard, 26 February. Jones, Jonathan, “Review: Visual Art: Billy Childish ICA, London 3/5,” The Guardian, 20 February. Machell, Ben, “Revenge? That Would Be Childish,” The Times, 12 February. 2008 Flintoff, John-Paul, “That's Just Childish,” Sunday Time, 12 October. Lack, Jessica, “The Guide: Theatre: Billy Childish: I Fill All of Your Dreams: London,” The Guardian, 15 March. 2007 McDermott, Leon, “Musician, Artist and Poet - Though He Spurns Those Labels - Billy Childish Explains His Love of a World Long Lost and Why He Doesn't Want to Be Famous,” Sunday Herald, 22 April. 2006 O’Brien, James, “The Revolution Will Not be Publicized,” Gentlemen’s Quarterly, March. Ribas, Joao, “Billy Childish,” Artinfo.com, 7 February. 2004 Guner, Fisun, “Billy Childish: We Are All Phonies,” Modern Painters, Spring. 2002 Mulvey, John, “Childish Pursuits,” The Scotsman, 10 May. 2001 Johnson, Phil, "Broomhill Art Hotel: sculpture garden and art gallery, Barnstable, North Devon," Art Review, 1 February. 2000 Hunt, Ian, “British Art Show 5,” Art Monthly, 1 May. 1999 Hodgkinson, Will, “Arts: He has written 30 poetry books, made 80 albums and nearly 2,000 paintings. But he's best known as Tracey Emin's strange ex-boyfriend: Will Hodgkinson meets the prolific Billy Childish,” The Guardian, 14 September.
PUBLICATIONS
2013 “Billy Childish: painting that change the universe like digging in the gutter with a broken lolly stick,” Koenig Books, Ltd, London “Boxed Set 2013,” Koenig Books, London 2012 “Frozen Estuary and Other Paintings of the Divine Ordinary,” L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London
2011 “The Stonemason,” L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London “Paraffin Van” (Also published under the title ‘I Fuckt Frida Kahlo’ as a Faber and Faber lookalike.) “Forgotten Letters: An Anthology of Dyslexic Writing,” R.A.S.P., London “Dwang 3,” Tangerine Press, Tooting Brown, Neal, “Billy Childish: a short study,” L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London 2010 “Dwang 2,” Tangerine Press, Tooting “Colour Blinds Music Deafens Taste Burns My Throat and the Poets Massacre,” Tangerine Press, Tooting “Love the Art Hate,” L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London “The Soft Ashes of Berlin Snowing on Hans Fallada’s Nose,” Neugerriemshneider, Berlin. 2009 “Selected Poems: Penguin Classic “Art” Edition,” L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London “The Uncorrected Billy Chyldish,” Tangerine Press, Tooting “Unknowable but Certain,” Blackheath Books, London “Dwang 1,” Tangerine Press, Tooting “The Hedonist’s Guide to Life,” Filmer Ltd, London “Penny-Ante: Three,” Los Angeles “Punk Fiction: An Anthology of Short Stories Inspired by Punk, Portico, London Nineteen Raptures,” NB Publishing, London 2008 “Gods Fantastic Colours” - Hand stamped covers. Note: some copies appear with different titles and different author and publisher: 'Art War, Man Taken from Guts' and 'Insolunce in the Face of Art' being examples. “Where the Tiger Prowls Stripped and Unseen,” The Aquarium, London “Old 4 Legs,” The Aquarium, London “This is My Shit and it Smells Good to Me,” The Aquarium, London 2007 “the idiocy of idears,” L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London 2006 “The Edgier Waters,” Snowbooks Ltd, London 2005 “A River Anthology,” Urban Fox Press, Chatham “Bagazine No. 1,” X-Ray Book Company, Ventura “9 Stories of the River Medway Recounted in the Language of Idiots for People of Little Discernment.” “The River be My Blud: Medway Poems 1980-2005,” Urban Fox Press, Chatham “The Man with Gallows Eyes - Selected Poetry 1980-2005,” The Aquarium, London 2004 “The 1st Green Horse God has Ever Made,” Urban Fox Press, Chatham “Knite of the Sad Face, Chap Book,” The Aquarium, London “Sex Crimes of the Futcher,” The Aquarium, London 2003 “Calling Things by Their Proper Names,” Hangman Books, Chatham “The Boss of All English Riters,” Hangman Books, Chatham “Evidence Against Myself,” Hangman Books, Chatham 2000 “Chatham Town Welcomes Desperate Men,” Hangman Books, Chatham 1999 “I’d Rather You Lied” Selected Poems 1980-1998, Codex Books, Hove 1997 “Notebooks of a Naked Youth,” Codex Books, Hove “A Terrible Hunger for Love: Unpublished poems 1982-84,” Hangman Books, Chatham 1996 “In 5 Minits You’ll Know Me: Selected Poems 1985-1995,” Sympathetic Press, Long Beach “My Fault,” Codex Books, Hove “This Purile Thing,” Imprint 93, Compiled and Edited by Matthew Higgs 1995 “Big Hart and Balls,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1994 “Poems to Break the Harts of Impossible Princesses,” Hangman Books, Rochester “Days with a Hart Like a Dog,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1993 “Hunger at the Moon,” Sympathetic Press, Long Beach “Trembling of Life, Damaged Goods,” London
1992 “Poems of Laughter and Violence: Selected Poems 1981-1986,” Hangman Books, Rochester “The Hart Rises,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1991 “Like a God i Love all Things,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1990 “The Deathly Flight of Angels,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1989 “Death of a Wood,” Hangman Books, Rochester “The Silence of Words,” Hangman Books, Rochester “En Carne Viva: Poemas 1984 – 1988,” Spanish/English, Stultifera Navis, Barcelona “Admissions to Strangers,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1988 “Maverick Verse,” Hangman Books, Rochester “Cannon Fodder,” by Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Trans. K. De Coninck and B., Chyldish, Hangman Books, Rochester “The Girl in the Tree,” Hangman Books, Rochester “To the Quick,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1987 “Companions in a Death Boat,” Hangman Books, Rochester “Conversations with Dr. X,” Black Hand Distribution, Rochester 1986 “Monks Without God,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1985 “Poems Without Rhyme, Without Reason, Without Spelling, Without Words, Without Nothing,” Hangman Books, Rochester “Tear Life to Pieces,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1984 “Poems from the Barrier Block,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1983 “The Unknown Stuff,” Hangman Books, Rochester “Nothing Can Stop This Man,” Hangman Books, Rochester “10 No Good Poems of Slavery,” Buggery, Boredom and Disrespect, Hangman Books, Rochester “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” Hangman Books, Rochester 1982 “7 by Chyldish,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Prity Thing,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Big Cunt,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “You Me Blud N Knuckle,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Black Things Hidden in Dust,” Phyroid Press, Chatham 1981 “The First Creacher is Jellosey,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “2 Minits walk from 10am,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Back on Red Lite rd,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Book of Nursry Rhims,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Bo-Pug: The Six Tails,” Phyroid Press, Chatham 1980 “Shed Country Paintry + Poeming,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “The Dog Jaw Woman,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Fracture Clinic,” Bill Lewis “The Medway Poets,” Cheapo Publications, Chatham “Billy Chyldish in Merz England No. 1,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “The Man with Wheels,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Mertz in Chatham,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “The Cuckoo’s Cuckoo,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Kinda Garten,” Phyroid Press, Chatham 1979 “Goat Gruff,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Hack Hack,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “The Arts and General Interest,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “The Kray Twins Summer Special,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Fab 69,” Phyroid Press, Chatham “Bostik Haze,” Phyroid Press, Chatham 1977 “Chatham’s Burning,” Phyroid Press, Chatham
SELECTED FILMS
2005 Billy Childish Is Dead 2004 Brass Monkey 2003 Shooting at the Moon 2002 The Flying Mustache 1993 Cheated 1983 Quite Lives 1980 The Man With Wheels